The Inside Texas Inside Scoop

Big-time boosters haven’t reached a concensus on Mack Brown’s job status, but assistants hitting the recruiting trail hard seems to indicate no one is going anywhere. And will UT add some Jucos to the mix? Also, whither Myck Kabongo? All of this and more in this week’s edition of the Inside Texas Inside Scoop!
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Bill Frisbie: Here is this week’s chat with a

source who has longstanding ties with the UT Men’s Athletic Department. My

source has been part of the conversation regarding ‘exit strategies’ for

previous UT coaches in various sports. You mentioned last week that just three, big donors are

basically running Texas football… “DeLoss (Dodds) is running Texas football, but there are

four or five big-time boosters… my point being that there is a very small

circle of benefactors whose contributions are so substantial that they’re the

silverback apes in the football program.”

So, where do things stand with them following the K-State

loss? “Well, obviously, none of them are happy. The past two weeks have mitigated most of the

good will Mack accumulated during the four-game win streak. Playing as poorly as we did against TCU is

inexcusable. We played well enough to win at K-State for nearly three quarters

but the final score looked horrible.” Specifically, where do things stand with them regarding any

sort of ‘exit strategy’ for Brown? “I’d say there is a slight majority that wants a change this

year.” How important is it that there is a consensus among them? “You don’t have this clear consensus (this year) like we had

with (John) Mackovic in ’97 (regarding a chance). At least one of biggest donors absolutely

believes Mack deserves another year or two with the talent he has coming back.” Does that one ‘silverback ape’ go by the initials of Red

McCombs? (There was about a five-second pause) “Red has been vocal in his support of Mack throughout the

years and Red has been a tremendous asset to the University, and not just in

football. I’ll put it that way.” He’s put some butter on your bread a few times. “Look. DeLoss does

not want to fire Mack this year. If

DeLoss wanted Mack gone, he would have been fired by now.” So, the outcome of the bowl game is not necessarily

determinative for Brown or for any of his assistants? “They wouldn’t be out recruiting right now if they knew they

were going to be fired.” Even Manny Diaz? “He had some outstanding games his first year, this year was

just horrible. I’ll say this: it’s a better situation, in terms of staff

camaraderie, than it was a few years ago when they had (Larry) MacDuff. They

realized that was a mistake three games into the season. With Diaz, I’m not sure if they know what

they’ve got. He was a relative unknown when they hired him. I’ll say this,

because I’m friends with Will (Muschamp) and because I’ve been to enough

practices over the years…I don’t think the players have much of a…a ‘fear

factor’, or a ‘respect factor’, or whatever you want to call it…with Manny as

they did with Will. That’s just my

opinion. There’s been some loafing and freelancing on this defense that I don’t

think would have crossed their minds a few years ago.” We’ve heard that Brown has asked Diaz to take another job,

if offered. “I think Mack would be more pro-active than that if he

wanted to make changes with any of his staff. That’s a bit passive if Mack

truly wanted an assistant gone. Mack

tells all of them to consider another job if it’s the right fit for them and

let him know. He doesn’t want to hear it

first from the media.” We understand Mack has circled the wagons against mid-level

donors and that he trusts very few people. “I talk to him every week. Nothing’s changed in our

relationship. (laughing) Maybe I’m one

of the people he trusts.” What does he say to you about his long-term affiliation with

the program? We’re hearing Mack will be

given one more year – one only – regardless of the outcome of the 2013 season. “Mack doesn’t discuss that sort of thing with me. That’s the kind of conversation he has with

DeLoss or Sally. But I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Mack left next year.

I’ve said all along that I never expected Mack to be here through the end of

his contract. In fact, I’ve told you for

years that I thought the 2012, 2013 seasons would be around the time Mack was

ready to hang it up.” So, if Mack doesn’t have that kind of conversation with you,

you say that because….? “Mack has always said he’d like one more shot at a national

title. And next year looks like a good

chance if we don’t have the kind of injuries we’ve had lately. He believes he

had built the program to where, about every four years, he’d be in that (BCS)

title game hunt. He thought this might

have been the year but, obviously, things didn’t work out with (Garret)

Gilbert, and that set the time-frame back a year or two. The guys you got

playing quarterback now were insurance policies.” ———- Eric Nahlin: They say actions

speak louder than words, and outside of the political world this holds true.

That’s why I find it extremely interesting that Mack Brown and his band of

often times merry men are hitting the recruiting trail so hard in search of

Juco players. Why is that interesting? Well, unless you’re Bill Snyder and you

can routinely decipher the proper Juco talent to keep your cupboard full, this

is a short sighted plan. Jucos are considered a quick fix, not something you

build your program around. Outside of Cecil and Cam, this also holds true.

A man who’s about

to step down doesn’t start looking to replace a quarterback that grew by leaps

and bounds between his freshman and sophomore years. He certainly doesn’t

expect a quarterback that threw 19 interceptions this past year in the Kansas

junior college ranks, as Nick Marshall did, to push a quarterback who easily

outperformed that on a much larger scale. He would, however, look for a better

insurance plan should Ash get hurt, as he did a couple times this year. If next

year goes according to Mack Brown’s plans, he’ll be damned if the last game of

the season rests in the hands of a player who has proven he’s not starter

material in his previous three seasons.

A man who is about

to call it a career wouldn’t be looking for a junior college defensive end,

potentially two of them in fact, when he already has Reggie Wilson, Cedric

Reed, Jackson Jeffcoat, Shiro Davis, and a few more young players looking for

playing time, unless he was stockpiling for one more roll in the hay.

Or maybe he would,

but other than last year, he hasn’t shown much interest in doing so. My two

cents are that he’s coming back and I base that largely on the way they’re

recruiting.

And, if Manny Diaz

being on the recruiting trail this past week in Florida is any indication,

he’ll be back too. Why would Mack Brown send a defensive coordinator on his way

to unemployment to recruit a defensive player, as Diaz did this week with Oscar

Giles?

One more thing, I

was told that Mack Brown visited 2013 Cypress Woods linebacker Deoundrei Davis on

Thursday. A man about to step down doesn’t do that, of course I’ve learn to

expect the unexpected with this situation.

On to some

recruiting.

Diaz and Giles

took in some sun to see De’Vondre Campbell in his Florida hometown. The

Hutchinson C.C. defender is a specimen at 6-4 and 220 pounds and could be

featured at linebacker or defensive end. I haven’t seen a lot of Campbell, nor

have I talked to him, but the current Tennessee commit will be in town for the

banquet this weekend. I don’t know if they’re looking at him as a space player

(LB) or an edge player (DE), but I’m hoping for the former based on last year’s

results.

Also attending the

banquet is defensive end Za’Darius Smith from East Mississippi C.C. and is yet

another physical specimen. Smith is 6-5 and 255 pounds and projects as a

defensive end. With no defensive ends in this class, I would prefer a four year

player, but Smith could help fill the void left by Alex Okafor. Similar to how

Texas lost Kheeston Randall and replaced him with Brandon Moore, Texas is

looking to replace one skill set with a fairly analogous one.

The third and

final Juco player that will attend the banquet is giant offensive tackle

Desmond Harrison. Harrison, from Contra Costa C.C. in Northern California, was

supposed to be accompanied by his , who lives in North Carolina. I

wrote a couple weeks ago that I could hear in Harrison’s voice that he held his

UT offer in very high regard. I’m not ruling out Harrison committing to Texas

this weekend, but I think he may take another visit or two. Harrison was

offered by Alabama this week. He knew that offer was likely coming weeks ago

and he didn’t sound all that thrilled about Bama, though he does have one

more visit after UT that he could use to trip to Tuscaloosa. Harrison does like

the idea of playing in a college town.

I like Harrison,

but from seeing his film I think he’ll end up as depth for Cochran. At 6-7

tall I doubt they’re thinking about moving him to guard.

The final

uncommitted player scheduled to be in attendance is an Inside Texas favorite,

Andrew Billings. I guess a report came out saying he was adding Arizona State

and Missouri to his list of Texas, Baylor and TCU.

With zero concern

for ASU or Mizzou, I called up another Inside Texas favorite, Mary Herbst. The

Waco head coach had this to say, as always, in his authentic Cen-Tex drawl:

Eric: Coach, sorry about the loss to Wolforth Frenship, but

great season.

Coach Herbst: Thank you, we still don’t know what to make of it.

We got further than we had in a while so I’m really happy for the team.

Eric: You may not know this, but you have an extraordinary

football player on your team named Andrew Billings. What’s the deal with some

new schools coming into the picture?

Coach Herbst: I’ve heard of him. He’s a good player. It’s just

one of those things where schools are coming by left and right and everyone’s

still recruiting him really hard. I don’t know what’s allowable as far as

visiting goes, but TCU’s here as much as they can be. The thing with Arizona

State was, Andrew’s just such a nice kid, I don’t think he has the heart to

tell people no. The visit would take place in late January, but that’s only if

he’s still on the market.

Eric: Will he be on the market?

Coach Herbst: I don’t really want to speak for the family, I’m

supposed to meet with them next week sometime to discuss everything, but I bet

he’s picked a school by late January. He’s going to Texas this weekend and he’s

excited about that.

Eric: You say coaches are coming through to talk to Andrew all

the time. When was the last time you saw Coach Searels?

Coach Herbst: He came by yesterday (Wednesday) and he and Andrew

talked for a while. Heck, they talked forever, just about the details of the

visit and things. Andrew also told him that he likes Texas and it’s the only

school he’d consider playing offensive line for. Coach Searels told him that

his last three centers made it to the NFL and that he really likes Andrew’s

initial punch. He told Andrew that it’s strong like Casey Hampton’s was in

college.

I’m nearly certain

that Andrew won’t go out of state and I still believe it’s between Texas and

TCU with Texas holding the advantage. I wouldn’t entirely rule out a commitment

this weekend or next week.

The other 2013

high school offensive lineman with a Texas offer is Katy Seven Lake’s Caleb

Benenoch. It’s been a tumultuous process to the former Michigan State commit

and Texas/Oklahoma/Stanford lean. After infatuations with each of those

schools, look for Caleb to choose between Baylor and UCLA. Earlier in the week

I said I thought he was going to go to Baylor, where his brother attends. I’m

going to pull a 180 and now say that he picks UCLA, the school he truly wants

to attend.

So with the good

standing with Harrison and Billings, did Texas back off? No, they didn’t. Major

Applewhite went by KSL one last time earlier in the week to discuss things with

Benenoch. Alabama also made a late “offer.” Leave it to Nick Saban to

force me to put ‘offer’ in quotations, but the feeling is they offered to try

and get him to visit but were going to wait to officially offer until Benenoch

made it to Tuscaloosa, which is dumb, because he’s entirely more impressive off

the field than on it.

While Applewhite

was mainly at KSL to check on Benenoch, he also checked in on their 2014

defensive end, Jarrett Johnson. Johnson is all potential at this point, but if

Texas slips with the grouping of elite defensive ends in the class, they could

make a run at Johnson. Texas isn’t the only school taking note of Johnson. UCLA

will offer, according to Benenoch, and some high powered schools such as

Georgia have been by to check on him.

Applewhite also

went by Katy’s practice – they’re always a safe bet to be practicing this time

of year. I was hoping he was going to talk to Oklahoma defensive end commit

Matt Dimon, but that wasn’t the case. I’ve been told the Texas staff believes

him to be a good prospect, but they passed for a reason. I have a feeling the

reason is they don’t see him being athletic enough for zone drops. Whatever.

They’ll rue the day, imo.

Hopefully you saw

the article on Jasper’s Terrell Cuney yesterday. Cuney’s in the Billings phylum

of physical mauler with good feet. I talked to his coach, Darrell Barbay, and

got a bit more intel on the intriguing offensive lineman. While Cuney’s

strength numbers aren’t anywhere near Billings’ territory, he’s no slouch.

Last year as a

245-pound sophomore, Cuney posted bests of 285-pound bench, 415-pound squat,

275-pound power clean, and a 4.9 40. Now as a 260-pound junior, Barbay expects

those numbers to improve as Cuney physically matures.

Barbay added some

comments. Some of these will hurt:

“Can he play at Texas? Well he can’t play quarterback which

is what they need. My goodness, the number one school in the state of Texas and

they can’t find a quarterback. It’s embarrassing. But yes, he can play there.

They asked me if I thought he could and I told them yes and Coach Searels said

he thought the same. He needs to have a good spring and senior year for us, but

he has all the tools. He’s really fast and moves really well. And boy, he’s as

hardnosed as they come, which is what they really like too.”

Someone who can

definitely play for Texas is Mount Pleasant wide receiver K.D. Cannon. The

electric playmaker had a so-so year with 105 (!) receptions, 1,592 yards (!) and

25 (!) touchdowns. With production like that merged perfectly with exceptional

athleticism, Cannon will be one of the most hotly recruited players in 2014. He

already is, actually.

Mount Pleasant

head coach Mart Graham tells me that he’s hearing from too many schools to keep

count, with visitors coming by one after another. In fact, Coach Darrell Wyatt

was by yesterday to visit. This was Wyatt’s third visit, I think, after having

seen Cannon once in the spring and then taking in an October game.

Wyatt absolutely

loved Robbie Rhodes and I guarantee you he thought Texas should have offered

him immediately. With his explosive burst, Cannon’s in Rhodes league, though

his frame is a bit more slight. I guarantee you Coach Wyatt has Cannon as his

number one priority for the class.

There’s also

another similarity to Rhodes. Coach Graham, like Rhodes’ coach, Lanny Trammell,

stays almost entirely behind the scenes other than offering the advice of going

to a school that throws the ball around. And yes, Baylor is already all over

Cannon, just like they were with Rhodes. It could be deja vu all over again,

but there’s a long way to go. Just know there’s some interesting similarities

between Rhodes and Cannon.

One final note.

A’Shawn Robinson is expected to visit USC this weekend rather than visit Texas.

This means if he does take his official visit to Texas, it will be without any

potential future teammates.

———–

Tim Preston: No place else to start but the Myck Kabongo situation.

There’s decent news and bad news.

The decent news is that common thought puts Kabongo back by, or right after, the UNC game. That 9-10 game zone seems to be what most are assuming will now to be the case.

The bad news…everybody’s guessing. Everybody. Barnes doesn’t know. Kabongo doesn’t know. People around the program don’t know. It seems that this is all just a matter of picking the cleanest number of games (first 5, now 10) in an attempt to make out what the NCAA is thinking.

And the NCAA isn’t talking.Obviously, this is a frustrating time, but Texas seems unwilling to play Myck until a decision comes down, and who knows when that will happen.Playing the waiting game while your team gets rocked in what otherwise should be winnable games is not fun.With the blowout loss to Georgetown looming over the program, the question of where we go from here would seemingly be weighing on the staff and team.Surprisingly, the sources I’ve spoken to this week, would indicate just the opposite.”There’s still confidence (in the locker room),” one source said. “They get it. They know they’re not playing with a full deck. Obviously, nobody likes losing, but it’s not doom and gloom in there.”Another source agreed.”Rick is working them hard knowing this is a team that has to understand the future,” the source said. “Look, six of the nine guys that have played this season are eight games into their college career. The other three are sophomores. Think about that for a minute. You think these guys are hanging their heads at this point? People need to take a step back. I think the frustration with the football team is carrying over a bit and people need to get off the ledge.”Interesting words, but what about any recruiting implications with the slow start?”We still lead for Randle,” the second source continued. “I can tell you that much. People don’t give recruits enough credit. You think they don’t know how important a guy like Kabongo or Bond is to this team? I’ll say it again…’this ain’t football’ so people need to stop drawing parallels because the playing fields are not the same.”So what should we make of this?”It’s a young team,” the source finished. “You should make of it that these guys will be here for four more years and that they’re going to win a bunch of games. Just give them some time to figure it out.”Apparently, I struck a nerve.On the recruiting front, multiple sources that I spoke to concurred that Texas remains in the lead for Julius Randle’s services and that we are right in the thick of it for Keith Frazier.Elsewhere, combo guard Demarcus Croaker committed to Murray State over the past weekend but I’m not ready to say that recruitment is over. Should Texas decide to put on the full court press, would he tell them no? I doubt it, honestly.

———–

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